England’s annual Reading Festival returns this weekend, and well… we can’t say we’re terribly excited about a headliner slate that includes Red Hot Chili Peppers, Imagine Dragons, and Biffy Clyro.
Back in 1992, however, when music was, you know, exciting, Reading was off the fucking charts. Yesterday, Tim Burgess of The Charlatans tweeted out an image of the fest’s Main Stage set times, including Nirvana’s now-legendary Sunday night performance that was immortalized in a 2009 DVD. Their appearance came less than a year after Nevermind hit the shelves.
The rest of the bill is bonkers: The Wonderstuff and Public Enemy headlined Friday and Saturday, respectively, and the entire run-of-show is full of pull-point highlights. What jumps out at us? That Saturday slate of Buffalo Tom, Rollins Band, a pre-Siamese Dream Smashing Pumpkins, The Farm, Manic Street Preachers, EMF, and Ride all leading up to Public Enemy. In the other days, it must have been crazy to catch Pavement, Beastie Boys, L7, PJ Harvey and Public Image Ltd all while the sun was still shining.
Off the Main Stage, the Session Tent had the goods as well, with Suede (months before their debut LP would hit), Urge Overkill, Catherine Wheel and Cracker all playing off to the sides.
Just found this from Reading 1992 pic.twitter.com/vOyTjrjYWN
— Tim Burgess (@Tim_Burgess) August 22, 2016